Tag: adoption

Where's Waldo Wednesday: Priorities

Published on by D. G. Hart2 Comments

The objection to the priority of justification rests partly on the idea that justification and sanctification come simultaneously (though distinctly) through union with Christ – prioritization prohibited. And yet, the problem of prioritizing one benefit before another doesn’t seem to bother the advocates of union when it comes to the rest of the benefits purchased by Christ.

The duplex gratia apparently teaches a double or two-fold benefit that comes through faith in Christ, one being forensic and the other being renovative. And yet, the Standards teach that believers receive not simply justification and sanctification, but also adoption and the other benefits that accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification.

Q. 36. What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption and sanctification?

A. The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption and sanctification, are, assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end. (Shorter Catechism)

Q. 82. What is the communion in glory which the members of the invisible church have with Christ?

A. The communion in glory which the members of the invisible church have with Christ, is in this life, immediately after death, and at last perfected at the resurrection and day of judgment.

Q. 83. What is the communion in glory with Christ which the members of the invisible church enjoy in this life?

A. The members of the invisible church have communicated to them in this life the firstfruits of glory with Christ, as they are members of him their head, and so in him are interested in that glory which he is fully possessed of; and, as an earnest thereof, enjoy the sense of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, and hope of glory; as, on the contrary, sense of God’s revenging wrath, horror of conscience, and a fearful expectation of judgment, are to the wicked the beginning of their torments which they shall endure after death.(Larger Catechism)

So, aside from the question of how these other benefits – such as adoption – fit in the duplex scheme, it looks like the advocates of union prioritize just as much as the advocates of justification priority. One group prioritizes justification and sanctification among the benefits. The other prioritizes justification. Rather than being illegitimate, prioritizing is basic to both sides. (It could even be that union advocates prioritize union.)

Where’s Waldo Wednesday: Did He Say “Impetration”?

Published on by D. G. Hart9 Comments

We are told that God saves us in His mere mercy, by a renovating work of the Holy Spirit, founded on the redeeming work of Christ; and we are told that this renovating work of the Holy Spirit was in order that we might be justified and so become heirs. Here the purchase by the death of Christ is made the condition precedent of the regeneration of the Holy Spirit; but the action of the Holy Spirt is made the condition precedent to justification and adoption. We are brought unto God by Christ in order that we may be brought to God by the Holy Spirit. And in bringing us to God, the Holy Spirit proceeds by regenerating us in order that we may be justified so as to be made heirs. In theological language, this is expressed by saying that the impetration* of salvation precedes its application: the whole of the impetration, the whole of the application. And in the application, the Spirit works first by regenerating the soul, next justifying it, next adopting it into the family of God, and next sanctifying it. In the more vital and less analytical language of our present passage [Titus 3:4-7], this is asserted by founding the gift of the Holy Ghost upon the work of Christ: “which He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our saviour”; by including in the work of the Holy Ghost, regeneration, justification, adoption, and a few verses lower down, sanctification; and by declaring that the regeneration of the Holy Spirit is “in order that being justified we might be made heirs.”

. . . . This is encouraging teaching for believers! Shall they, then, because they are saved out of God’s mercy and not out of works in righteousness which they have done themselves, be careless to maintain good works? I trow** not;; and the Apostle troweth not. Because of this, they will now be careful “to maintain good works.” Let us see to it then that by so doing we approve ourselves as true believers, saved by God’s grace, not out of works but unto good works, which He hath afore prepared that we should walk in them! This is what the Apostle would have us do. (B. B. Warfield, “The Way of Life,” in Faith and Life, pp., 399-400)

*Impetration: 1. The act of impetrating, or obtaining by petition or entreaty.

** Trow: Archaic to think, believe, or trust.